The Astros (93-50, 1st in AL West) play their final 2022 series against a divisional foe as they welcome the A’s (52-91, 5th in AL West) to MMP
The Astros face off against the A’s for one final time in 2022 as the two teams look to be headed in radically different directions. Oakland is a team who’s fortunes have reversed quite suddenly and violently, switching from a perennial contender to a bottom feeder after ownership decided a rebuild was in order over the winter. Since then, the team has done everything it can to reinforce the fact that it is going absolutely nowhere.
Sitting at a paltry 52-91, Oakland is removed from worst record in the league by only a game and a half and was eliminated from possible postseason play a good long while ago. The A’s haven’t won a series in almost a month and have won only two since the beginning of August. In fact, they’ve only won 4 series in all of the second half of the season, though that does include a sweep of the Astros in Oakland back in July.
Offensive stats across the course of the season are about what you’d expect from a team with such an anemic win/loss record. Their best hitter with a significant amount of play time is catcher Sean Murphy. He has managed just a .251/.331/.436 slasher, which makes him the only regular with an OPS north of .750. Dermis Garcia, who made his MLB debut just earlier this year, is looking really good so far with a .963 OPS. He’s only had 55 AB’s though, so that number is probably not going to last much longer.
The A’s are currently running a closer-by-committee situation after losing their primary reliver Dany Jimenez to shoulder injury. Zach Jackson was part of that committee until he went on IL himself, leaving A.J. Puk, Domingo Acevedo, and Sam Moll to cover back end duties for the bullpen. Unlike the rest of the team, the relief corps actually has some pretty good stats to back them up, so Astros may have trouble mounting late rallies against this set of arms.
Much like the rest of the team there’s not a whole lot to write home about when it comes to the starters the Astros can expect to see this weekend. Game 2 Starter Cole Irvin probably performed the best out of the bunch thanks to a 3.73 ERA, which is the only mark below 4.00 out of all of the pitchers. The next closest is James Kaprielian’s 4.79, with the other two pitchers having marks over 5.00. Of course, that’s not quite fair for Game 4 starter Ken Waldicuk, who is only making the 4th MLB start of his career.
Offensive Stats: YTD, Last 7 Days
Pitching Stats: YTD, Last 7 Days
Last 10 Games: 3-7 Record, 3 Series Loss, 1 Series Swept, -22 Run Differential (35 scored, 57 allowed)
W/L Splits: 23-48 at home, 29-43 on the road, 28-54 against teams over .500
Injured List: James Kaprielian: day-to-day (finger), Adam Oller: 15-Day IL (rib), Zach Jackson: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Dany Jimenez: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Paul Blackburn: 60-Day IL (finger), Daulton Jefferies: 60-Day IL (arm), Deolis Guerra: 60-Day IL (elbow)
Game 1: James Kaprielian (RHP, 3-9, 4.79 ERA, 76 K’s) vs Lance McCullers Jr. (RHP, 3-1, 2.20 ERA, 26 K’s)
Game 2: Adrian Martinez (RHP, 4-4, 5.59 ERA, 31 K’s) vs Justin Verlander (RHP, 16-3, 1.84 ERA, 154 K’s)
Game 3: Cole Irvin (LHP, 8-11, 3.73 ERA, 113 K’s) vs Jose Urquidy (RHP, 13-6, 3.75 ERA, 121 K’s)
Game 3: Ken Wadichuk (LHP, 0-1, 5.40 ERA, 14 K’s) vs Framber Valdez (LHP, 15-5, 2.50 ERA, 169 K’s)
Game 1: Thursday, September 15th @ 6:20 pm CDT Listen: Athletics - A’s Cast, Bloomberg 960 AM / Astros - KBME 790 AM/94.5 FM HD-2, KTRH 740 AM/99.1 FM HD-2, TUDN 93.3/KLAT 1010 Watch: FOX
Game 2: Friday, September 16th @ 7:10 pm CDT Listen: Athletics - A’s Cast, Bloomberg 960 AM / Astros - KBME 790 AM/94.5 FM HD-2, KTRH 740 AM/99.1 FM HD-2, TUDN 93.3/KLAT 1010 Watch: Athletics - NBCSCA / Astros - ATT SportsNet-SW / MLB Network (out-of-market only)
Game 3: Saturday, September 17th @ 6:10 pm CDT Listen: Athletics - A’s Cast, Bloomberg 960 AM / Astros - KBME 790 AM/94.5 FM HD-2, KTRH 740 AM/99.1 FM HD-2, TUDN 93.3/KLAT 1010 Watch: Athletics - NBCSCA / Astros - ATT SportsNet-SW
Game 3: Sunday, September 18th @ 1:10 pm CDT Listen: Athletics - A’s Cast, Bloomberg 960 AM / Astros - KBME 790 AM/94.5 FM HD-2, TUDN 93.3/KLAT 1010 Watch: Athletics - NBCSCA / Astros - ATT SportsNet-SW
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